[161-27] JACOB HEEBNER ANDERS, d Mar. 19, 1833; d June 17, 1911; s Frederick and Catharine (Heebner) Anders [161-15]; m Mar. 23, 1876, REBECCA SCHULTZ, b June 26, 1845; d June 3, 1920; dau Joseph and Susanna (Gerhard) Schultz [70-10]. No issue.
Jacob Heebner Anders was born on his father’s farm adjoining the Worcester Schwenkfelder Church. Although as a boy he seemed to be in delicate health, he developed a “wiry”’ fibre of physical endurance that later showed an enormous capacity for strenuous labor by hand and an ability to stand tests of strength and prowess.
At an early age he showed an intense thirst for education. He attended the Trappe (Pa.) Seminary and by intense application became especially brilliant in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Engaging in the profession of teaching, Mr. Anders taught in several of the districts of Montg. Co., and in the late 50’s served a number of years as principal of the Wynnewood (now Ardmore, Pa.) High School. During this period his services were frequently sought by surveyors in solving intricate probiems of acreage, etc.
During the Civil War he read medicine for a time, but was dissuaded by his parents from entering the medical profession. He then turned to the study of law and was graduated from the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, being admitted to the Phila. bar about 1869. Specializing in patent eases, he became very skillful in this branch of legal procedure and originated several new procedures, with the sanction of the judges of the U. S. Courts, in the naturalization of aliens.
During all this time he continued his study of languages and mathematics. It is stated that he spent many of his evenings translating difficult Greek and Latin passages, and is said to have weleomed problems brought to him for solution in higher mathematics. The Hon. Benjamin Harris Brewster, Attorney General of the U.S. in Pres. Benjamin Harrison’s Cabinet, himself an eminent scholar, is said to have pronounced Mr. Anders “‘the finest Greek and Latin scholar at the Philadelphia Bar.” [The Schwenkfeldian, Vol. VIII, p 122.]
Parents’ family: [161-15] Frederick Anders and Catharine Heebner